This issue of The Journal of Continuing Higher Education (JCHE) addresses the need to keep the adult learner in the center of our practice. It addresses education of the adult workforce, the fears of the learner, and the quality of our institutions.
Solutions for educating the workforce begin with competency-based education (CBE), and CBE is gaining momentum. The rising cost of higher education and the demand for a highly educated workforce are just a couple of the factors fueling this change. When I ran a database search using only the term “competency based education,” I found thousands of articles published in the medical profession literature over the past 20 years. Although CBE is being discussed in higher education news forums as a disruptive innovation, it really is not that new. However, it does disrupt the administrative, financial, and academic services established at higher education institutions.
For the most part the U.S. higher education institution is founded on a structure where students move through curriculum together, in a traditional 15-week semester, and earn credit hours based on seat time. Accelerated adult degree completion models and distance learning formats where students earn credits based on learning outcomes already disrupted this structure. However, in the traditional system students have always paid by the credit hour. Financial aid systems have a need for seat time and credit hours. This seat-time, credit-hour situation has led to many debates with the Department of Education, institutional leadership, financial aid officials, accreditors, and faculty about how to insert CBE into this foundational system. How does an institution deal with a variable self-paced approach?
Since I have received many questions over the past two years on how to implement competency-based education, I am very pleased to have two articles in this issue that discuss CBE. If you are looking for a topic to research and publish, I highly recommend CBE. If higher education professionals do not investigate this topic and publish, there will always be a corporation to take advantage or a government entity to tell educators what to do.
The first CBE article, by Dragoo and Barrows, analyzes the challenges and strategies for implementation through a qualitative research study of CBE programs at three different institutions. While there are limitations with this study, anyone interested in or in the middle of CBE implementation could glean some nuggets; I did. The second CBE article, by Burnette, is a literature review of CBE and discusses several models that are being used across the United States to fit CBE into current higher education systems.
To continue addressing solutions to educating the adult workforce, in this issue there are two articles concentrating on prior learning assessment (PLA). PLA is not new. It is another way of evaluating a person's knowledge without the traditional seat time and curriculum. PLA has been around since the 1970s and yet, we are still trying to make it fit within our foundational, traditional, seat-time, credit-hour institution. The third research article, by Rust and Ikard, examines PLA at a public university. JCHE has a dedicated Prior Learning Assessment article each issue. In this one, Adams and Wilder discuss how Charter Oak State College created and maintained a robust PLA program. Having worked with adult learners for more than 30 years, I am familiar with the authors' statement that “PLA rises and falls as interest in serving adults rises and falls” (Adams & Wilder, this issue, p. 125). If you use PLA, these articles provide some validation and new thoughts. If you are new to PLA, I highly recommend reading and sharing.
That brings us to the fear portion of the issue. Well, who among us has math anxiety or has dealt with adult students with math anxiety? I hear it all the time from my graduate students: “Oh, please do not make me take the statistics course.” As long as degree programs have math requirements, adult learners will face the anxiety of the topic. In the fourth article, Kinkead, Miller, and Hammett researched adult learners in a statistics course, examining their stress and anxiety and their perception of an -instructional model involving collaborative problem solving. This qualitative study gives insight into an instructional strategy to mitigate stress and anxiety.
With the final research article, we arrive to the quality portion. The for-profit institutions have been a major focus of many agencies. For-profit vocational institutions' quality has been questioned. Their student employment rates upon graduation are closely scrutinized. With this in mind, Booton's research article addresses the topic of faculty perceptions of a for-profit vocational higher education's academic quality. There is room in our workforce for a variety of skills, and vocational institutions can help meet that challenge. The -lesson from this article applies not only to for-profit vocational institutions, but to all higher education institutions—public, private, for-profit, nonprofit, vocational, and research institutions. We must all focus on our students and their learning. What do we need to do to help our students learn, grow, and achieve their goals? The quality of programming and teaching is the responsibility of education professionals.
This issue is rounded out with some opportunities for professional development. Contributing Editor Mary Bonhomme proves a variety of new-development articles to read to keep ourselves apprised of the world around us and opportunities available. In the final section, Distance Learning Exchange, Contributing Editor Marthann Schulte reminds us to share our professional knowledge and -accomplishments. I echo her sentiments and request that all readers begin writing up their best practice or institutional research and submit a manuscript. Publications are the way we can share our practice and knowledge. Early in my career, I read this journal to find new -program ideas or new procedures and system ideas. I was grateful to the contributing authors, as I found ways to improve my programs and expand my knowledge concerning adult learners and higher education. It is now your turn to share.
Contribute to this journal. You can find the submission guidelines at this website: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=ujch20&page=instructions#.Vx48uKMrJBw. We would love to hear your story.